Brontophobia
by KingIradescense
Summary: Brontophobia is the abnormal fear of thunder and lightning. Thunderstorms were awfully frightening, Haruhi thought. The Hosts didn't quite agree, and though unsure if they could change that they were more than happy to help her in their individualistic, Host Club ways.
**~A series of oneshots where the Host Club members are with Haruhi during a thunderstorm~**

 **I realized I was too lazy to go and manually retype everything for another website, so hahaha. Now I gotta update stuff *sigh*. I finished watching Ouran a few days ago and I went looking specificially for this sort of fic. They were there, yes, but only as a side-thing and not mentioned in the title or description, which saddened me. All of these will have an accidental kiss somewhere in it, heehee... Hopefully, anyway.**

 **If you want to see a specific grouping of characters, as until then I will be following the normal homo-supporting cast makeup (Hakaru and Kaoru, Mori and Honey, and for fun Tamaki and Kyoya :3) after doing them each individually. If you really want, I might even be able to do an OC. Hehe. Enjoy, as this anime was quite lovely and enjoyable.**

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Tamaki remembered the incident back at the beach well. So he had hoped the next time she was afraid - terrified beyond any fear he had ever personally experienced - she would at least call up him or the Suou household. His father had clarified she was welcome there and Tamaki had even given her the house phone, but she had yet to call ever since the Ouran Fair (when he gave her the number). That's not to say their current relationship is rocky, by any means. Rather, nothing particularly extraordinary or out of place had happened as of late. Despite his normal capriciousness, he was somewhat gladdened by the calm interlude. However, with how long it had lasted so far, something was bound to happen, big or small; the calm before the storm would be sure to draw to a close soon.

So when some major thunderstorms started rolling in about a week ago, Tamaki had known that calm had ended and the storm was here; both as an analogy, and literally happening. Forecasters predicted such weather would be occuring on and off for at least another week still. And ever since it did start, Haruhi had excused herself from club activities without fail, and was nowhere to be found after or inbetween classes. Regardless of whether or not she even left the school at the end of the day or not, which she probably didn't when storms started up at the same time, she vanished into hiding. Quite literal, like the storms are.

With at least two weeks total of storms predicted, and now being one week into said storms, Tamaki had run out of patience, in a sense. He could no longer wait for someone who clearly would not come on thier own. That afternoon, in fact, he went straight to the apartment she shared with her father. What he heard from Ryoji-san struck pure terror into him.

"She's not here. I haven't seen her much all week. I figured she was at another student's house or something," he waved dismissively, somehow seeming to be unaware of the severity for the situation, and, for that matter, his child's severe brontophobia. However, when he lacked a snide comment and bait in his words, instead looking at Tamaki with an odd gleam in his eyes, the blonde thanked him and, though he had a limousine waiting for him out in front, rapidly continued the search on foot.

"Haruhi-kun! Haruhi-kun!" He yelled desperately as the storm had closed in, lightning flashing every few minutes and something slightly beyond a drizzle poured down, soaking through his uniform. What seemed like an eternity later, though, he finally came to pass a playgound. Naturally, it was visibly empty, as was normal during a storm, and he had been about to simply pass by the area when thunder clapped not too far away, no more than five miles, and a sharp breath was just barely audible from a plastic tube running under the elevated part of the set. Carefully, and slowly, he crawled into the little space next to the shivering crossdresser, still wearing the Ouran boys' uniform. She simply leaned against him and kept her head down as acknowledgement to his presence. The air felt somber in the little shelter. Rain pounded loudly on the sides and top, and whenever a wind passed by it would go straight through, taking some rain inside with it, leaving both bodies to sit in a tiny stream at the bottom of the plastic cylinder.

"This is a lot different from last time," Tamaki mumbled, lowering his gaze just slightly, enough to see her just within his field of vision.

"Mm-hmm," she responded, freezing at a faraway lightning bolt. Tamki groaned quietly before continuing, obviously upset about something.

"Why didn't you come to one of us?" Uh-oh. He was slipping back into that same tone he had when he first found out about her fear; the stupid recklessness. Haruhi's breath hitched at the next clap. When she didn't say anything, and didn't appear to be planning on saying anything, he continued.

"I was so worried, much less what the othres might be thinking!" To some guilt, Tamaki had forgotten to call up the others and inform them. Despite all appearances, they were observant, to say the least. Tamaki didn't doubt they were all at least worried (yes, even Kyoya).

"You know you can always... come to us, right?" He quieted his voice a little, leaning a bit into her. God, if the fact that they were always available... if she didn't know that...

"I know," she finally mumbled. "I know."

"Do you really? Because... it really seems like you dont," he snipped back almost immediately. He regretted the way he had said it, but didn't take it back. A silence dawned on them for maybe a good minute, until Haruhi took a slow breath and opening her mouth to speak.

" 'M sor-" A rumble of thunder, the loudest byfar tonight, snapped without much warning not too far away. Haruhi took a much sharper inhale, and latched onto Tamaki. Both were cold and wet, and doing this didn't help that much, but she didn't care very much about that. Neither did Tamaki. His wet uniform wasn't his biggest concern right now. As tense as she was, he muscles relaxed after a few minutes, though not by much, and she started to speak again.

"I'm sorry, Tamaki-senpai. It's just that... it feels like everything just happened yesterday, so I though... bringing up something that seems to have been resolved would be a bad idea," she murmured. Tamaki could not help but snort and chuckle a bit.

"Eh? What's so funny?" She mumbled, staring him straight-on in the eyes. Tamaki squeezed his eyes shut for a good moment or two, quenching his laughter in order to speak.

"None of us considered your fear resolved. We were all on standy for when a storm would come around," he explained, softening his expression.

"Oh... Then I've just been really stupid, haven't I?" Haruhi laughed weakly, flinching at the next, but much-quieter sound in comparison to the last, accompanying the sudden illumination outside.

"I wouldn't say that," he responded, momentarily hoisting her an inch or two into the air to set her down onto his lap. Typically, Haruhi would not allow this, but under the current circumstances, she let it slide and nestled comfortably against his chest. Her next startled was much more subdues, as she did feel much safer at the moment.

"Then what would you say?" She spoke softly, slight fatigue quick to attack her now that she was slightly calmer.

"I would say... you're been incredibly kind and considerate about how we could have been feeling. I respect that about you, Haruhi-kun. But be a bit bolder if you need our help," he responded clamly.

"So... I'm a nice coward, then?" Tamaki laughed again, nodding in bemusement.

"At the moment, I guess so," he agreed.

"You're the first person to point that out to me," she sighed. Tamaki patted her head affectionaly, allowing a sincere grin to remain on his face.

"Well, I'm your Daddy," he chuckled, "so I'm going to be honest with you."

"Is that to say you've lied to me before?" Haruhi questioned, with a small grin of her own ghosting across her face.

"Not at all!" Tamaki responded quickly, sounding distraught and shaking his head rapidly.

"Good," she answered cheekily, then suddenly seemed deep in though. Right as she seemed to get ready to say something, lightning flashed and she shuddered. This, however, did not escape Tamaki's notice.

"Eh? What is it, Haruhi-kun?"

"Nothing," she shook her head.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah," she nodded, barely suppressing a whimper at another loud crash.

"Maybe we should... get out of here," Tamaki sighed, whipping out his phone and rapidly punching in a number. Haruhi watched quietly as he told the person on the other end of the line their current location. She vaguely recognized the feeling of relief that he knew where they were; she had just duched in here without knowing where she actually was.

"Thank you!" Tamaki exlaimed happily into the receiver, hanging up right as a few flashes hit at the nearly the same time, earning more fearful reactions from Haruhi. Tamaki, upon seeing this, hesitantly wrapped an arm around her shoulders, turning to stare out on of the tube's entrances. His face had gone bright red, and he placed his free hand over his mouth. His expression and specific hand position was similar to that of when he found out Haruhi was a girl.

After several tense minutes like this, both could hear a car engine outside come to a stop over the pitter-patter of rain against tube. Any thunder hitting at the moment was further away, easily quieter than the car. Tamaki peeked out, and his face lit up like two Christmas trees.

"Come on, Haruhi-kun!" Tamaki exclaimed, moving to crawl out of the tube, holding her hand. Once he straightened up outside, he pulled on the appendage but was surprised when he was met with resistance. Haruhi crouched at the edge of the tube, blankly looking forward, and her eyes easily hidden under her hair.

"Haruhi-kun?" He bent down in front of her, waving a hand across her dazed face a few times. She slowly titled her head to look at Tamaki. The sheer terror shining glassily in her eyes caused a realization to dawn rather quickly on him. Wordlessly, he leaned forward and grasped her, then to stand up and hold her bridal style. But what happened next...

God, those tears leaking some Haruhi's eyes were painfnul to look at at. Not even an audible sniffle escaped her; just silent tears. Her shoulder shook, but she was clearly even minimizing that. He'd never actually seen her cry; not even during the Eclair incident or at the beach, when she'd hidden in the wardrobe. The contacts when Renge-kun was trying to film them was, well, due to the contact falling out.

So Tamaki pulled her tight and walked to the limousine at a brisk pace. Haruhi buried her face into his blazer, with a death grip around his neck.

 _So unlike Haruhi. But fear does that to people, he supposed._

He was so focused that when he ducked to get into the limousine, he hit his forehead on the rim. Haruhi heard this and forced herself to look up while trying to not pay much attention to the lights crackling across the dark clouds.

"Tamaki-senpai?" She whispered in a shaky voice. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just wasn't paying attention," he spoke quickly, ducking to step inside again. However, three things happened all at once. Firstly, he lowered his head, rather than trying to crouch again. Secondly, he lifted Haruhi slightly higher to angle her for the third thing, which was to turn her sideways and head in feet-first; so she would actually go through the opening, obviously.

Ultimately, when he actually moved and did these three things at once, their mouths met in an accidental, sloppy kiss. Haruhi went wide-eyes and red. Tamaki went still and might as well have been glowing or have steam coming out of his ears. Neither made an advancement, but after several minutes they both pulled away at the same time and going quiet as Tamaki hurriedly brought her inside and set her down on a seat.

Tamaki quietly sat down beside her, but not touching her. The driver looked back through the window, apparently having not seen what just happeend, and questioned where they would be going to.

"What time is it?" He asked instead. The driver glanced at his watch.

"Two in the morning, sir." Well, good thing tomorrow wasn't a school day. Both of them could rest, then. But would it be a good idea to drop her off so late at night? And her father would probably be out at work or asleep at home. But.. after that... would it really be a good idea to ask her to...?

"Uhm.. Tamaki-senpai?" She still shivered but didn't move from her spot.

"Haruhi-kun..." he mumbled, unsure of how to ask this. "Since it's late, uh..." he gulped, Haruhi, still reddened, gave him a questioning look. "Well.. do you think that maybe... should should... stay at my place for the night..?" He braced himself for the answer, which he was sure would be a strong 'no'.

"S-sure," she stammered out, her face even more flushed than it was a moment ago. Her lips still tingled and the way their teeth had clacked together through the skin left a slight stinging in her mouth and slightly sore gums, but somehow.. it wasn't unpleasant.

"Okay... driver, to the estate," he quickly spoke, hand-signalling through the window. The driver nodded and a panel slid across the opening. Both sat in silence for several minutes, until another thunder clap shot loudly, illuminating the window - and Haruhi's tear-stained face. Tamaki did feel incredibly guilty for it, but it was either that or sit in a wet, cramped, plastic tube, soaked, cold, and in a windy thunderstorm for however much longer it would last. She could have gotten hypothermia... But the accidental kiss left him feeling nervous and jittery... something unlike him.

Both took a breath at the same time, looked at each other, and began to speak. They did it so hurriedly they didn't realize the other was doing the same until the heard the other's voice.

"Uhm... you first, Tamaki-senpai," Haruhi quickly spoke as a follow-up, having cut herself off as Tamaki had done the same.

"Tha- that's fine, Haruhi-kun! You go first," he ushered, clearly embarrassed.

"Uhm..." she gulped this time, trying to calm her unnaturally frazzled nerves. "I'm sorry," she finally just chose to blurt. Tamaki blinked, then chuckled weakly.

"I was... gonna say the same thing," he admitted. "I'm sorry."

The panel slid again, opening the slot, allowing the driver to inform them of their arrival to their destination. The car came to a slow stop moments after, and the driver stepped out and went to open the door for his two passengers. Tamaki glanced back at Haruhi[kun, who was losing control of her nerves rapidly at the impending doom ringing through her head.

"Come on, Haruhi-kin," he murmured, adjusting his arms underneath her to carry her, bridal style, as previously done. "You ready?" He questioned seriously. He didn't want to make Haruhi cry again. Not ever. She just nodded, scrunching her eyes shut and pressing the side of her face into his blazer. He moved swiftly, ignoring the driver's questions for an umbrella. Said driver then chose to rush forward to open the mansion's doors. Immediately, Tamaki started calling out names of servants.

Needless to say, three hours later, both had eaten a meal, given a hot bath, and Haruhi had adequate, modest bed clothes provided and a guest room to spend the night in. The attending staff had quickly come to like Haruhi-kun and enjoyed her presence. Tamaki, naturally, had been sent to his own room, but as the storm pounded against his own massive window, he couldn't sleep at the thought of Haruhi's fear. So, he did the most logical thing he could think of; sneak out of his own room and into the one Haruhi was using.

Oddly enough, he got away with it.

Much more normally expected, Haruhi was huddled in a ball under the covers, flinching terribly every time lightning struck. Wordlessly, he climbed into the bed, pressing her to lean into him. It was her who had broken the silence, though.

"Why are you being so serious all of a sudden?"

"Because I'm worried." She 'hmm'ed.

"Don't be worried, then."

"Don't worry me, then." She shrugged.

"Tamaki-senpai?"

"Yeah, Haruhi-kun?"

"What did you mean earlier when you said the others were on standby? Do they know?" Tamaki went white as a sheet.

However, it could not have been too severe (what had happened, that is, if anything), as at noon the following morning they were found hugging, asleep, by the adoring and fawning staff who were quick to take pictures. A bright sun shone cheerily, casting light onto them. The storm had come to pass.


End file.
